This invention relates to a method for producing cut fresh curd blocks, wherein curd blocks are formed using at least one block former, subsequently cut and discharged for further handling. This invention also relates to a cheese production apparatus in which the method can be applied.
The invention is suitable in particular for use in the production of cheddar cheese and similar cheese types. In the production of such cheese types the curd is pre-drained and dried, for instance in a cheddar machine of the type Alfomatic, and the curd thus obtained is so treated that pieces of curd, commonly referred to by the term of (curd) chips, are formed. The chips are fed to the top of a block former column, in which further consolidation and drainage occur. At the lower end of the block former, a horizontal blade is disposed, commonly referred to as guillotine blade. The guillotine blade in the rest position closes off the underside of the block former and is retracted at predetermined intervals, so that the pillar of curd situated in the block former can move downwards. While doing so, the pillar of curd is supported by a platform, also moving downwards, which in turn is supported and controlled by a pneumatic cylinder or the like. When the pillar of curd has descended over a predetermined distance, the guillotine blade moves into the rest position again, whereby a block of curd is cut off.
According to the known technique, the blocks are pushed from under the guillotine blade by a push cylinder. In the process, the block passes a guide means, which can be designed as a short horizontal tube of rectangular cross section and which terminates in front of a conveyor track. Arranged at the free end of the tube is a plastic bag of a suitable material, for instance polyethylene. A block so packed in a bag is discharged via the conveyor track, which conventionally comprises a conveyor extending in transverse direction along a number of block formers. The bags are closed and evacuated. The blocks can then be transported to a storage room to ripen.
PCT patent application WO 93/22903 (Brockwell) discloses a method of the above-described type, in which a curd block cut off by the guillotine blade, commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cgreen cheesexe2x80x9d block, prior to being packaged, is first divided into smaller portions using a number of horizontal and/or vertical blades. The blades cut through the curd block and the portions formed can then be separated and be separately packaged. Packaging occurs at some distance from the block former. The thus packaged curd blocks can then ripen further.
Often, as the curd blocks are being cut up, or prior thereto, they are trimmed, that is, cut on the outside to a neat rectangular block with straight edges.
A drawback of this known technique is that the blocks produced by a block former are sometimes very fragile. This holds in particular during the preliminary phase of the production and/or if slight malfunctions have occurred in the equipment. In such situations the curd blocks obtained may exhibit a lesser coherence than would normally be the case. If such a block is cut, this can easily give rise to damage, for instance local crumbling, which is undesired.
A drawback of trimming is that it entails trimming losses.
The object of the invention is to obviate the drawback outlined and generally to provide a method and apparatus by means of which blocks produced by a block former can be cut into smaller blocks in an efficient and reliable manner.
To that end, according to the invention, a method of the above-described type is characterized in that a curd block, after leaving a block former, is placed in a conveying holder, that the conveying holder is brought to a pressing station, and that the curd block in the conveying holder is briefly pressed and is subsequently transported further.
A cheese production apparatus comprising at least one block former and a conveyor track passing along the block former(s) is characterized, according to the invention, in that the conveyor track is arranged to convey conveying holders which in operation receive a curd block in a transfer station at the block former(s) and deliver the curd block in a removal station, and that the conveying holders, between a transfer station and a removal station, pass a pressing station where a curd block in a conveying holder is briefly pressed.